A co-processor is an additional processor that performs one or more specific tasks to reduce the load on the main processor, or CPU. For example, many personal computers include co-processor chips to perform specific arithmetic functions, which may significantly increase the speed of the computer.
One particular application in which co-processors are commonly used is for processing wireless telecommunication signals. Telecommunication signals transmitted by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, or PDAs, may be received by a wireless antenna and communicated to a base station node. The base station node then processes the received signals before sending them toward their final destination. The base station node may include one or more co-processors to perform specific tasks in processing the signals. For example, a base station node operating under the 3GPP FDD standard may include one or more co-processors to perform correlation functions for RAKE receiver operations, delay path searching, and preamble detection.